In White House plan, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to be replaced by CIA chief

WASHINGTON – The White House has developed a plan to force out Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose relationship with President Donald Trump has been strained, and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, perhaps within the next few weeks, administration officials said Thursday.

Pompeo would be replaced at the CIA by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who has been a key ally of the president on national security, according to the White House plan. Cotton has signaled that he would accept the job, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity.

It was not immediately clear whether Trump had given final approval to the plan developed by John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, but the president has been said to have soured on Tillerson and in general is ready to make a change at the State Department. Tillerson was at the White House on Thursday twice for meetings, but neither the president nor his team gave a public reaffirmation of his position in the administration.

As he hosted the visiting crown prince of Bahrain, Trump was asked by reporters if he wanted Tillerson to stay on the job. "He's here," Trump said simply. "Rex is here."

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, later issued a statement saying that "there are no personnel announcements at this time," but she did not deny that there was a transition plan in mind.

"When the president loses confidence in someone they will no longer serve in the capacity that they're in," Sanders told reporters at a briefing later in the day. "The president was here today with the secretary of state. They engaged in a foreign leader visit and are continuing to work together to close out what we consider an incredible year."

Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, went further, saying that Kelly called to deny that there was a transition plan. Nauert noted that Tillerson not only had been to the White House twice Thursday but also had spoken with Germany's foreign minister and the United Nations secretary-general.

"He remains, as I have been told, committed to doing this job," Nauert said. "He does serve at the pleasure of the president. This is a job that he enjoys."

Under a plan conceived by Kelly, the shake-up of the national security team would happen around the end of the year or shortly afterward.

But for all of his public combativeness, Trump is notoriously reluctant to fire people, and it was not known if Tillerson had agreed to step down.

Public disclosure of Kelly's transition plan may have been meant as a signal to the secretary that it is time to go. One person close to Trump said it may be a way to lock the president into a transition he might otherwise be reluctant to make.

At the same time, there was some concern in the White House about the appearance of a rush to the exits given that other senior officials may also leave in the early part of the new year. White House officials were debating whether it would be better to spread out any departures or just get them over with all at once.

White House officials said Tillerson had been seen as a lame duck as far back as late summer.

Although Kelly sought to keep him from leaving then for the sake of continuity in the first year, the chief of staff has since come to grow weary of the fighting over personnel between the State Department and the White House, according to White House officials. White House aides telegraphed to a number of presidential appointees that Tillerson's days were numbered and that the only question was how long he would remain.

The ouster of Tillerson would end a turbulent reign at the State Department for the former Exxon Mobil chief executive, who has been largely marginalized over the past year. Trump and Tillerson have been at odds over a host of major issues, including the Iran nuclear deal, the confrontation with North Korea and a clash between Arab allies. The secretary was reported to have privately called Trump a "moron," and the president publicly criticized Tillerson for "wasting his time" with a diplomatic outreach to North Korea.

Tillerson's exit has been anticipated for months, but associates said he was intent on finishing the year to retain whatever dignity he could. Even so, an end-of-year exit would make his time in office the shortest of any secretary of state whose tenure was not ended by a change in presidents in nearly 120 years.

While some administration officials initially expected him to be replaced by Nikki Haley, the ambassador to the U.N., Pompeo has become the White House favorite.

Pompeo, a former three-term member of Congress, has impressed Trump during daily intelligence briefings and become a trusted policy adviser even on issues far beyond the CIA's normal mandate, such as health care. But he has been criticized by intelligence officers for being too political in his job.

Cotton has been perhaps Trump's most important supporter in the Senate on national security and immigration and a valued adviser. Officials cautioned that there was still a debate about whether Cotton was more valuable in the Senate, but he is the consensus choice at the moment.

Under Arkansas state law, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, would appoint a replacement who could serve until the 2018 election.